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"Boys," said Mrs. Howard one morning, looking up from
a letter she was reading, "I have had a letter from your
grandmamma. She writes that she is returning to England shortly."

The boys went on with their breakfast without showing any great
amount of interest in this piece of news, for they had never
seen their grandmother, and therefore could not very well be
expected to show any affection for her.

Now Mrs. Howard, the mother of two
of the boys and aunt to the third little fellow, was a widow
and very poor, and often found it a hard task to provide for
her "three boys," as
she called them, for, having adopted her little orphan nephew,
she always treated him as her own son. She had sometimes thought
it strange that old Mrs. Howard should not have offered to provide
for Leslie herself but she had never done so, and at last Mrs.
Howard had ceased to expect it. But now, right at the end of
her letter, Grandmamma Howard wrote:—

"I have been thinking that perhaps
it would come a little hard on you to support not only your
own two boys, but poor Alice's son, and so, on my return to
England, I propose, if you are willing, to adopt one of them,
for I am a lonely old woman and shall be glad of a young face
about me again."

After thinking the matter over, Mrs. Howard decided she would
say nothing about their grandmother's intention to the boys,
as she thought that it was just possible she might change her
mind again.

Time passed on, and winter set in, and full of the delights
of skating, the boys forgot all about the expected arrival of
their grandmother.

During the Christmas holidays the boys one morning started off
to Broome Meadow for a good day's skating on the pond there.
They carried their dinner with them, and were told to be sure
and be home before dark.

As they ran along the frosty road they
came suddenly upon a poor old woman, so suddenly that Leslie
ran right up against her before he could stop himself. The
old woman grumbled about "lazy,
selfish boys, only thinking of their own pleasure, and
not caring what happened to a poor old woman!"

But Leslie stopped at once and apologized, in his polite little
way, for his carelessness.

"I am sorry," he said. "I
hope I did not hurt you; and you have such heavy parcels to
carry too. Won't you let me help you?"

"Oh! come on, Leslie," said his cousins; "we
shall never get to the pond at this rate!"

"Yes, go on," said the old woman sharply; "your
skating is of a great deal more importance than an old woman,
eh?"

But Leslie's only answer was to take the parcels and trudge
merrily along beside his companion.

On the way to her cottage the old woman
asked him all sorts of questions about himself and his cousins,
and then, having reached her cottage, dismissed him with scarcely
a "thank
you" for the trouble he had taken. But Leslie did not take
it much to heart.

He raced along, trying his hardest to overtake his cousins before
they reached the pond, and was soon skimming about with the rest
of them.

Squire Leaholme, in whose grounds the boys were skating, afterwards
came down to the pond to watch the fun, and, being a kind-hearted
old gentleman, offered to give a prize of a new pair of skates
to the boy who should win the greatest number of races.

As it was getting late, it was arranged that the racing should
come off on the following day, and the Squire invited all the
boys who took part in it, to come up to his house to a substantial
tea, after the fun was over.

How delighted Leslie was, for he was a first-rate skater, and
he did so want a new pair of skates!

But the Squire's skates were not to be won by him, for on the
following day as he and his cousins were on their way to the
pond, they came across the queer old woman whom they had met
on the previous day.

She was sitting on the ground, and seemed to be in great pain.
The boys stopped to ask what ailed her, and she told them that
she had slipped and twisted her foot, and was afraid that her
ankle was sprained, for she could not bear to put it to the ground.

"You musn't sit here in the cold," said Leslie; "come,
try and get up, and I will help you home."

"Oh! Leslie," cried both his cousins, "don't
go. You will be late for the races, and lose your chance of the
prize."

Poor Leslie! He turned first red, then
white, and then said, in a husky tone of voice.

"Never mind...you go on without
me."

"You're a good laddie," said the old woman. "Will
you be very sorry to miss the fun?"

Leslie muttered something about not minding much, and then the
brave little fellow set himself to help the poor old woman home,
as gently and tenderly as he could.

She would not let him come in with her, but told him to run
off as quickly as he could, and perhaps after all, he would not
be too late for the skating. But Leslie could not bear to leave
her alone and in pain, so he decided to run home and fetch his
Aunt.

When Mrs. Howard arrived at the cottage,
you can think how surprised she was to find that Leslie's "poor old woman" was
none other than Grandmamma Howard herself, who wishing to find
out the real characters of her grandsons, had chosen to come
in this disguise to the little village where they lived.

You will easily guess which of the three boys Grandmamma chose
to be her little companion. And oh! what a lovely Grandmamma
she was, as not only Leslie, but his cousins too, found out.
She always seemed to know exactly what a boy wanted, and still
better, to give it to him.

Walter and Stanley often felt terribly ashamed of the selfish
manner in which they had behaved, and wished they were more like
Leslie.

But Grandmamma told them that it was "never too late to
mend," and they took her advice, and I am quite sure that
at the present moment if they were to meet a poor old woman in
distress by the roadside, they would not pass her by, as they
once did Grandmamma Howard.